Singh cannot explain how so many misunderstandings have happened. | POLITICO Screengrab
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Singh has made that concession, when pressed, at least once before. In a February Spanish-language CNN interview he said, “There were so many great people who were involved in Barack Obama’s campaign. We had a very small role, and a very small part and there were a lot of people who were involved in technology.”

Asked to explain in that interview exactly what that role had been, Singh conceded he’d meant that his company managed the website of the New Mexico Democratic Party around the time of the election.

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The confusion ends, however, at the water’s edge. American operatives who have worked with Singh said he never tried to pitch himself as an Obama adviser.

The Chicago-born Singh is a familiar figure at American political events, where his company, ElectionMall, is known both for its recent partnership with Microsoft and for hiring fetching young women in fitted T-shirts to draw techies to company events.

There is no evidence that Singh’s Obama “connection” was referenced in his efforts to sell his company’s main service, which is a convenient dashboard which bundles a complete set of online campaign services, in the U.S. A spokeswoman for Microsoft, which was his company’s partner on the ‘Campaign Cloud’ service, said he’d never presented himself as connected to Obama.

His FEC billings show no connection to Obama. Rather, in the 2010 cycle, his Election Mall consulted on a handful of low-budget House campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats. And his biggest splash in domestic politics resulted in a tumultuous controversy that almost got a campaign’s website banned from search engines.

In 2009, his company’s brief stewardship of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s (R-Texas) gubernatorial web operation almost got the campaign website blacklisted from Google’s index. The Austin American Statesman reported that the site had malicious search terms hidden in the source code of Hutchison’s website that suggested, among other things, that Hutchison’s opponent was gay in a possible attempt to game the search engine’s algorithm.

The incident left hard feelings, and Singh’s company was fired. Singh declined to comment on the episode, citing a nondisclosure agreement.

Singh did, as he said, contract with the New Mexico Democratic Party for several years, including during the 2008 cycle, a party official confirmed. But party officials said the technology provided by ElectionMall was archaic and backward. The party eventually terminated them as a vendor.

“It was outdated and they never showed any signs of wanting to update it,” said a party official.

Still, Singh’s international client list remains robust. He was worked for the Fine Gael opposition party in Ireland, losing Brazilian Presidential candidate Jose Serra, and Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, among others.

Singh is following a long tradition of American political consultants abroad trading on — and occasionally exaggerating — their domestic prowess.

But the same technological revolution that he’s riding has made that path harder to follow.

“I think playing these games is a lot harder at this point than it was, let’s say 15 years ago — whatever you do, you’ll leave a lot of breadcrumbs in the net ecosystem — Google, social media — on a truly global scale,” said Micha? Kolanko, a reporter for the website wpolityce.pl who first brought the questionable representations of Singh to POLITICO’s attention. “You can’t work without public recognition, so these games create an impossible task for any impostor. It’s only a matter of time before someone notices that something fishy is going on.”

Hey, Ben, did Byron talked you into publishing this totally un-politico article? Write about me! Read my meoir since I'm more news-worthy than this ugly non-guru!!! I'm sure they're thousands of crooks around the world ripping off people same as this guy.So, a boo-boo article, my friend...but we love you and we'll keep coming back for more~

Hey, Ben, did Byron talked you into publishing this totally un-politico article? Write about me! Read my memoir since I'm more news-worthy than this ugly non-guru!!! I'm sure they're thousands of crooks around the world ripping off people same as this guy.So, a boo-boo article, my friend...but we love you and we'll keep coming back for more~

Oh my god? I misspelled something on a politcial blog? Obviously that makes me too stupid to do anything, and it had nothing to do with me carelessly typing on a lazy saturday afternoon.

I beg for your mercy, my leige! lol.

I got your back Nick.

Isn't it funny NEWLY MINTED/REGISTERED Politico members feel the need to spell-check veteran members? None of us here are trying to win the Pulitzer prize.

In closing, W. Micawber, take your own advice. You misspelled "initiative." There should be a period after the word "backs," instead of a comma.

W.Micawber: Apr. 19, 2011 - 4:03 PM EST

I understand most politicians are controlled by power and money. However at this moment in time conservative and republican politicians want to win back and maintain their power by letting chumps like me keep more of my money and keep big gov't off our backs, I have had it with the progressives robbing humankind of it's inniative so they can play Big Brother.

He found voters in Cemeteries He found voters in Alzheimers wards He found loan applicants on welfare He found suckers in Silicon Valley He found suckers in Hollywood He helped bust Fannie and Freddie He is helping the new bubble "Sallie" to blow up shortly.

Oh my god? I misspelled something on a politcial blog? Obviously that makes me too stupid to do anything, and it had nothing to do with me carelessly typing on a lazy saturday afternoon.

I beg for your mercy, my leige! lol.

It was simply a suggestion. nothing more then a stranger's opinion.

If I hit some hugely sensitive nerve from some ancient childhood experience (and apparently I did) I hope you will accept my most humble apology.

And Nick just let me add that I can sympathize with your condition. Ever since the invasion of illegals into NOVA the public schools have shifted their focus and resources to ESL, and believe you me, that had a real negative trickle-down effect on nearly every native-born student.

Actually Nick, the more I think about it, the more I believe you have obtained victimhood status. Congratulations!